By Florante Catanus, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau correspondent

AL-KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia – Four Filipinos based in Saudi Arabia are practicing hard as they are set to compete against the best singers in the world at the 17th Annual World Championships of the Performing Arts (WCOPA) in Los Angeles, California.

In 2009, the Filipino Community in Eastern Saudi supported Kimverlie, the daughter of Dr. Molina, when she competed in WCOPA, under the banner of Saudi Arabia, for the first time. Molina bagged the “2009 Grand Champion Senior Vocalist of the World” title and became the third Filipino to win the major award at the WCOPA.

In 2005, Madela was the first Filipino to bag the title of “Grand Champion Vocalist of the World”, while 13-year-old Catherine Loria also brought home the “gold” in the Junior Category in 2008.

Dr. Molina also recounted that 2010 was a good year because Krizia Guttierrez won Gold medal in the semi-finals of junior category, Edwin Mercado won silver medal and Allisa Liangco and Lovely Salas went home with Bronze medal in the semi-finals of the senior category. Gutierrez and Mercado were from Al-Khobar while Salas and Liangco were from Jubail.

“Only Mikah Baler of Al-Khobar did not win in 2010 WCOPA but in 2011, Karla May Careon of Jeddah won gold in the semi-finals of the said competition,” Dr. Molina added.

Dr. Molina said that participating in WCOPA is no joke because it entails a lot of expenses. He said each participant will incur a total cost between US$ 8,500 to USD 10,000 (P350,000 to P400,000) which includes the entry fee, hotel accommodation, airfare, miscellaneous expenses and pocket money.

But he said the expenses are worth it because of the prestige of the competition, scholarships offered to the winners and the chance of being discovered by US talent managers.